gbe Vrobintes.

The meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science was opened at Manchester on Wednesday ; when the General Committee for the arrangement of the proceedings assembled in the rooms of the Royal Institution in Mosley Street. Many of the leading members were present ; and Professor Whewell said that many dis- tinguished foreigners had promised their attendance. It was also stated that the Queen had placed the dismantled laboratory in Richmond Park at the disposal of the Association. An address of thanks to her Ma- jesty was voted. The amount of subscriptions to the local fund waa about 2,7301.

The contemplated public meeting of shopkeepers took place at Man- chester on the evening of Thursday week, in the Town-hall. Mr. G. H. Winder was called to the chair. The same dismal accounts were given as at the preliminary meeting mentioned in our last number. The Chairman predicted, that the day is at hand when forbearance will be lost, "and when the lawyers, bailiffs, and auctioneers, will swallow us all up." Mr. Abel Heywood described the meeting as a new feature in the history of public meetings—a meeting composed entirely of shop- keepers and tradesmen, come, or nearly so, to an equality of condition with that of the labouring artisan. Among the most interesting decla- rations was the following, by Mr. Peate- He was no politician or party-man ; but for years bad been industriously en- deavouring to procure that for his family which was now, after be had gained it, wasting away before his eyes, and be was unable to stop it. He had called on many shopkeepers, hatters, tea-dealers, brush and shoe makers, provision- dealers, hosiers, rent-collectors, pawnbrokers, tailors, and drapers ; and every one, with but one exception, told him their receipts were every week decreas- ing, their trade not more than one-third, one-half, or even one-tenth what it was three years ago. As a Manchester man, he would declare he was unable to place his capital in a remunerating position ; and be would never rest until he had obtained redress. We were compelled to pay and look on a national farce, and be laughed at by the actors. He had reduced his establishment, and he was now himself doing the work of three men ; and he was not able to pro- cure the necessaries which his bodily support required.

Mr. W. Lockett read a statement of the condition of several shop- keepers in Salford ; of whose receipts the following is a tabular view- 1839. 1841. Difference.

647,300 £23,400 17,200 10,600 43,300 20,500 22,300 13,100 £130,100 £67,600 Decrease weekly £1,300 In remarks appended to this statement, it is observed that one provi- sion-dealer explained his inability to reduce his expenses, by the fact that with less profit be has more trouble, as his customers buy in such small quantities. Another said that the children of the poor were con- tinually coming for halfpennyworths of bread. Another used not to know what to do with certain outside scraps of bacon ; now many of his old and respectable customers (he had been in business twenty-four years) were glad to buy it in pennyworths to moisten their potatoes.

The following resolutions were carried by the meeting- " That we, the tradesmen, shopkeepers, and retail-dealers of Manchester, assembled in public meeting in the Town-hall of this borough, this 16th day of June 1842, feel called upon solemnly to declare, that the existing distress among our body is greater than was ever before experienced ; that trade has fallen off to an extent without parallel ; that the profits on such restricted

trade have also been greatly reduced : that, nevertheless, the taxes, both nati- onal and local, have very materially increased; that confidence in trade trans- actions between man and man is well nigh destroyed ; and that we cannot rea- sonably anticipate, without an immediate legislative interposition, other results than rapidly progressive decay and early and general ruin.

" That we attribute the great and grievous distress now existing among our body, first, to the general want of employment by our industrious population ; secondly, to the totally inadequate remuneration of those yet in partial employ- ment ; and thirdly, to the deficient supply of food, and its consequent high price."

A number of Chartists were present ; and after the first resolution had been carried, they compelled an adjournment of the meeting to Stevenson's Square. From that time the proceedings were somewhat disorderly. A third resolution was moved, recommending Free Trade as the relief for the existing evils ; but an amendment was carried re- commending the Charter. A resolution calling on the shopkeepers of other towns to cooperate in procuring legislative remedies, and an amendment calling on them to cooperate for the Charter, were both withdrawn. In the discussion, a shopkeeper indiscreetly asked, if the operatives wanted to grind the shopkeepers down into their ranks ? and some cried out, " Ay, grind them down l" Thanks to the shopkeeper- chairman were moved and seconded by Chartists.

The Morning Chronicle narrates, on authority for which it vouches, the condition of some mercantile firms in Stockport : we extract one account- " Mr. —, a spinner and cotton-manufacturer at Stockport, died about ten months ago, leaving a large property by will to his family : the property con- sisted of extensive cotton-mills for spinning and weaving, and of great num- bers of houses for his workpeople : the estimated cost of the whole exceeds 150,000/.; and during the past five years 30,0001. have beets expended on new machinery. The executors, finding the concern indebted for mortgages and open debts in the sum of 23,000L, declined to prove the will ; and the family took out letters of administration. The creditors declined to advance money to carry on the works ; and the consequence is, they have been standing some months. The creditors are unpaid, the interest of mortgage and chief rent equally so ; and it is expected that the property will never realize a farthing for the family. The creditors and mortgagees have not as yet taken the pro- perty into their own bands, but urge the family to dispose of it. They have offered the whole works to a tenant at a rental of 2,0001. per annum, and now are seeking to get an offer for them. 1 am assured 1,500/. would be accepted, and a lease be granted." In another case, a gentleman retired in 1833, leaving property esti- mated at 60,0001., clear of all incumbrances, to his sous : they failed in 1839-40 ; when he was security for them, expecting a large surplus after paying the creditors : he is now showing the works for the benefit of the creditors, at a salary of 20s. a week.

It observed that Sunday meetings of Chartists in Lancashire and the surrounding country increase in frequency ; and incendiary attempts to set fire to factories are mentioned at Colne and Beswick. But the most interesting account of the state of the district is one by Dr. Taylor, LL.D., of a tour through the forest of Rossendale, Colne, Burnley, and Padinham, in a letter to the Morning Chronicle; from which we extract some passages. We begin with Burnley— "I found them all Chartists; but with this difference, that the block-printers And band-loom-weavers united to their Chartism a hatred of machinery, which Maras far from being shared by the factory-operatives. The latter also depre- tated any thing like an appeal to physical force, while the former strenuously urged an immediate appeal to arms. There was no concealment of sentiment on either side. I beard more than twenty openly advocate the expediency of burning down the mills, in order to compel the factory-hands to join in an in- surrectionary movement. A mill had been burned down at ColMe two nights

13 Provision-dealers £70,000 14 Butchers 27,800 10 Grocers 63,800 13 Drapers and others 35,400 50 £197,700

previously ; doubts were entertained whether this had been the result of design or accident ; and in the streets of Burnley there were groups expressing their hopes that it would be traced to design and followed by imitation, while the heartiest curses were bestowed on the lactory-bands of Colne for having heartily exerted themselves to check the conflagration and supply water to the engines. Permit me to repeat, that these sentiments were expressed openly and in the public streets. I stood among them and was known to be a stranger; there was no appearance of speaking either with a design to be overheard or an anxiety for concealment; bad I been one of the posts in the street, my presence

could not have been viewed with more perfect indifference. '

" On the following morning, I proceeded to Colne, in a gig lent me by a friend. Midway 1 was stopped by a group of seven operatives; who stated their distress in firm but respectful terms, and asked for relief. One of the men particularly struck my attention; he was the living skeleton of a giant." [The man is described as a mousseline-de-laine-weaver, who formerly earned 40s. a week : he had now exhausted his fund in the savings-bank, and was living on charity.] "As I had never been in this part of the country before, it was impossible for me to select specimens; and I took care that my guide should not, for, though he led to the streets, I took the houses at random. In all I visited, eighty-three dwellings selected at hazard, they were destitute of furniture, save old boxes for tables and stools or even large stones for chairs; the beds were composed of straw and shavings, sometimes with torn pieces of carpet or packing canvass for a covering, and sometimes without any covering what- ever. The food was oatmeal and water for breakfast ; flour and water with a little skimmed milk, for dinner ; oatmeal and water again, for a third supply, with those who went through the form of eating three meals a day. I was in- formed in fifteen famiffi s that their children went without the ' blue milk,' or milk from which the cream had been taken, on alternate days. I was an eye- witness to children appeasing the cravings of the stomach by the refuse of de- cayed vegetables in the root-market. 1 saw a woman in the very last stage of extenuation suckling an infant, which could scarcely draw a single drop of nu- triment from her exhausted breast. 1 inquired the child's age ?—fifteen months : why was it not weaned ?—another mouth would be added to the number of those for whom the present supply of oatmeal was insufficient. I was told that there bad been several instances of death by sheer starvation. On asking why application had not been made to the parish for relief, I was informed that they were persons from agricultural districts, who on committing an act of vagrancy would he sent to their parishes; and that they had rather endure any thing, in the hope of some manufacturing revival, than return to the condition of farm- labourers from which they had emerged. This was a fact perfectly new to me, and at the first blush utterly incredible ; but I asked the neighbours in two of the instances quoted, in the absence of my guide, and without their having a suspicion of my having had any previous conversation on the subject ; and they not only confirmed the story, but seemed to consider any appearance of scepticism a mark of prejudice or ignorance.

" I must add, that all the places and persons I visited in Colne were scru- pulously clean. The misery was fearful, but it had nothing which could offend the most fastidious. The children were in rags, but they were not in filth, and patching had been continued until the material was no longer able to hold the thread.

" From the excellent clergyman of the town I learned, that out of a popula- tion of 53,000, no less than 13,000 were receiving parish-relief; that the poor- rates had risen from 3s. to 108. in the pound; that the relief granted was deemed by the paupers so inadequate to their wants that the relieving-officer in one district was obliged to be protected by a military guard ; and that the general ruin was fast absorbing the shopkeepers of Colne and the dairy-farmers in the neighbourhood. I went into several of the shops : the same tale was told by all ; they saw nothing before them but bankruptcy and ruin." Dr. Taylor recurs to the symptoms of popular violence- " Connected with this subject, I may remark on the rapidity with which po-

litical intelligence appears to be promulgated in this district. The mail bring- ing the account of the debate on Mr. Ferrand's proposed grant had arrived that

morning : 1 he'd not seen a paper, but I received a very full account of the debate m a house at the outskirts of the town, which contained neither bed,

chair, nor table ; and I beard it mentioned in a score of places besides. * * In Colne, in Bolton, and in Burnley, there was generally an absence of anger and violence in the recitals of suffering; but here teeth were set, bands were clenched, and curses of fearful bitterness pronounced with harrowing energy. ' We wait but for the word to begin,' was stated broadly and openly by every band-loom-weaver or block-printer I met in the place; and the tone in which this declaration was uttered gave startling evidence of its sincerity. • •* In Padinham, I heard a man in the open streets go beyond even the violence of Burnley, and, amidst the cheers of some scores, express an eager hope that Captain Swing should take command of the manufacturing-districts.' "